Mooring line protectors

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Richard D

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When I got my boat in july fitted the mooring ropes with rubber tubing, it wqas hellish expensive qnd now find it is wearing through and also need to guard the extra lines I put on before the winter gales. The question is does anyone know of a hard wearing tubing for this job or any other simple fix that does not cost aqnd arm and a leg. My rope size is 22 mm.

Richard
 
Wow! 22mm is huge. Mooring warps are huge. 14 or 16mm is more common. Traditional way is to parcel them in leather. However if they are wearing that quickly perhaps you should be looking at the cause.
 
I am the new guy in the marina so get the worst pontoon spot on the outside with the worst conditions. Stranraer marina was built with a design for 2 breakwaters, alass only one was completed , the other is "in the pipeline" so until that happens in northerlies you dont get much protection. I was thinking of going up in size actually. The problem is the springs going back at about 20 degrees and the bow ropes at about 40, just the layout or the pontoon size and cleat positions, nothing much that can be done.
Seem several things in chandlers but none seem that efficient and cost £20 plus for each one, so some form of tube would be good.

Richard
 
You can get a heavy duty hose, green in colour, has a little flex in it. I found a bit in a skip at the harbour. Smooth inside, and extremely hardwearing. Unfortunately I don't know what it would be called if you were to look for it brand new.
 
Not "rubber" hose but just heavy wall garden hose reinforced with kind of fibre mesh inside, those are sometimes called 3-layered. From PVC or polyethylene, as for lawn sprinkling and such. Polyethylene is more resistant but stiffer. If problematic situation then buy two sizes, smaller and more pliable to put over whole line and then bigger on, in place to protect. £20 would buy you a lot I guess. Can't say names in English... Another good protection is discarded firehose.

P.S Just in case: worth to note some synthetic rope is easy to chafe. Can't advise hemp rope to englishmen probably (still marihuana prohibited? :cool: ) but natural fiber is more resistant. For synthetics good to know the 'melting point' of fibre, the higher the better. "Breaking load" is absolutely unimportant here, regardless what they advertise.
 
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Richard D said:
When I got my boat in july fitted the mooring ropes with rubber tubing, it wqas hellish expensive qnd now find it is wearing through and also need to guard the extra lines I put on before the winter gales. The question is does anyone know of a hard wearing tubing for this job or any other simple fix that does not cost aqnd arm and a leg. My rope size is 22 mm.

Richard
Click to expand...

Old lay flat hose from the fire brigade is good stuff. Can you put old car tyres between warps and cleats to provide a substantial shock absorber? Quite common in Plymouth on exposed berths.

Yoda
 
Kind of depends on how bad it is in your location.
taught lines chaff much more quickly than slack lines.
on a floating pontoon a bit of slack will allow boat to range up and down a little and in and out out a little only some of your lines will be taught at any given time.
dont use wire or chain it will be more resistant to chaffing than your boat.
I would use about a 1ft lenths of hose hard black rubber reinforced or a PVC polyethelene. cut a spiral cut up lenth of hose so you can put over lines at chaffing points. check and rotate. the hose will chaff but its not as expensive as new rope.
 
Mooring lines

My old tub is approaching 25tons , leather cut to shape and laced onto the 24mm warps that I normally use lasted about a week before through to the strands. Normal rubber hose wil powder as it rubs abit like your alternator belt.

Best thing I've found is silicon hose as used by car tuners and boy racers, the stuff lasts for ever , you can buy it on line in one meter lengths, I just slide it into position and tape the ends with gaffer tape to stop it sliding

I use rubber shock absorbers to prevent snatch loads on your lines and deck gear too, being on the hammer head is great but you are everyone else's wave screen !

Ian
 
Richard D said:
When I got my boat in july fitted the mooring ropes with rubber tubing, it wqas hellish expensive qnd now find it is wearing through and also need to guard the extra lines I put on before the winter gales. The question is does anyone know of a hard wearing tubing for this job or any other simple fix that does not cost aqnd arm and a leg. My rope size is 22 mm.

Richard
Click to expand...

Hi Richard,

I've just bought a pair of these to try. Having used Tricoflex hose and had it wear through, someone pointed me in this direction.

http://fjordinc.com/

They have some pretty convincing videos on how abrasion resistent they are!

Piers
 
Not sure if my computer has a grump on this morning but it blocked your link saying it was a malicious site :confused:

Piers said:
Hi Richard,

I've just bought a pair of these to try. Having used Tricoflex hose and had it wear through, someone pointed me in this direction.

http://fjordinc.com/

They have some pretty convincing videos on how abrasion resistent they are!

Piers
Click to expand...
 
Another vote for layflat hose, fire hose or the type used on the output side of a pump. I got mine from a market garden supply company, blue with a very smooth finish inside, it was a snug fit on the 22mm nylon rope I use.
I had problems with mooring lines wearing through in Peterhead Marina, which can get quite rough in an easterly gale. The first turn on the pontoon cleat wore through over the winter, it simply abraded as the rope stretched and relaxed.
I cured the problem by making a loop with a bowline and then sleeving the loop with layflat hose. I put the loop over the pontoon cleat and the mooring rope happily slide inside the layflat hose, as the rope stretched and relaxed.
I also doubled up the bow, stern and springs, making one line slightly tighter than the other. This gives a double spring effect, as the first line takes the strain, it stretches and the second line starts to takes some load, stiffening up the mooring system.
 
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Go to a plant hire place & buy compressor hose. The stuff used on larger breakers, not the small hand drills
it is reinfoced & very strong
Alternatively go to a place that does hydraulic repairs
Hydraulic hose is steel reinforced (& would hold the boat on its own if you had a piece long enough)
You may have problems with the 24 mm internal diameter but if there is no wear then a smaller line will do. you could leave your 24mm line hanging slack with tension on the lighter lines whilst you test the new hose
 
Another vote for flat hose, but reiterating the warning that synthetic ropes fail by melting, and heat is contained by hose...
Try to get all the stretch on the outside of the boat so the rope doesn't fret in the fairlead. That means cleats close to fairleads and long runs of stretchy rope or snubbers on the outside. In calm conditions, all ropes should be slack. I share the load using multiple lines in the 'hard-working' direction. The other bit to watch is the pontoon cleat - chain in a heavy pipe shackled to an eye is pretty bomb-proof. Some marinas don't allow metal to metal on their cleats as it destroys the anodizing.
 
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